Toshan Panday and Johan Booysen will always be connected. They are at the two opposite poles of state capture in SA.
One is described as greedy and sly, and had a golden thread tying him to the former first family.
The other is a pillar of integrity, undaunted and diligent.
The Zondo commission has heard how Panday, a former insurance broker and now one of Umhlanga's super-rich business moguls, captured the KwaZulu-Natal police in the previous decade.
The results of this can still be felt, years later, and it destroyed Booysen, the former provincial Hawks head, and some of his men's careers to a point. Two national directors of public prosecutions allegedly committed perjury to damage Booysen and left the NPA under a dark cloud because of it.
Why were police chiefs and the NPA bosses willing to lie under oath for Panday and protect him at all cost?
Read all about it in this week's edition of Afrikaans digital weekly Vrye Weekblad.
Booysen knew about Panday's political connections when the Hawks in KZN started investigating tenders relating to the 2010 World Cup and found R60m worth of suspect contracts that were awarded to Panday.
Even though Booysen and his team found highly incriminating evidence against Panday, the head of prosecutions in KZN, advocate Moipone Noko, withdrew the case against him in October 2014. Noko was known as a protégé of former deputy national director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba.
Jiba decided in June 2012 that Booysen had to be charged with racketeering. Eighteen members of his team were charged with murder.
A judge in Durban ruled later that Jiba's decision to prosecute Booysen, who had been shortlisted to become the new national Hawks head in 2015, was irrational and unconstitutional.
Booysen and the members of his team who were prosecuted are compiling a massive civil claim against the NPA.
Panday is still charged with fraud and corruption for trying to bribe Booysen during his investigation. He has tried to have the charges scrapped, but his application was unsuccessful.
All charges against Booysen and his team were scrapped last year, but at what cost?
Read the full article in this week's Vrye Weekblad
Must-read articles in this week's Vrye Weekblad
>> Browse the full January 24 edition
THE WEEK IN POLITICS | Max du Preez looks at André de Ruyter's role at Eskom, Judge John Hlophe scandals and Herman Mashaba and Mmusi Maimane's future political plans.
FREE TO READ — HARD MUSCLES, SOFT HEART | Annelize Visser did a CrossFit sesh with Rachel Kolisi and got to know her better over much sweat and toil.
WE'RE NOT LOOKING AFTER YOU | Our rail infrastructure is being destroyed, but this special police unit refuses to guard the trains and stations because it is “beneath them”.
STUFF THAT MAKE THE INTERNET SLOW | Could the mighty internet be brought to its knees by something as simple as a broken cable? Indeed, writes Willem Kempen.
A MASK AGAINST CORONA | As the secretive coronavirus spreads and kills, Gerhard Greyvensteyn, a South African in Shanghai, gets his face mask out.
